Noriega-Ortiz - Emotional rooms: the sensual interiors of benjamin noriega-ortiz

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

Copyright 2006 by Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Atria Books, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

Library of Congress Control Number: 2006051462

ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-4584-2
ISBN-10: 1-4165-4584-0

ATRIA BOOKS is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Illustrations by Christine Hwong

Visit us on the World Wide Web:
http://www.SimonSays.com

To steven

benjamin noriega-ortiz the designer Born in Puerto Rico, I am the son of an accountant and a nutritionist. For as long as I can remember, I wanted to become an architect. My mother used to buy me graph paper notebooks that I used for drawing house floor plans. My favorite designs were interior courtyard houses. I was eight or nine years old then, and like other kids I played with Legos and Tinker Toys. But in my case the structures I built were life size.

I have a brother with whom I shared a room until I reached puberty. I love my brother, Juano; however, we had nothing in common at the time but the room we shared. Our room had a pair of twin beds with our initials on the surface in big letters (think Laverne & Shirley ). He spent his leisure time playing sports, a passion he shared with my father. When I was given a room of my own, what a treat that was! I painted the walls pure white. The contrast was beautiful against the shiny black terrazzo floors. I bought one-inch-wide red cloth tape with my allowance that I used to delineate all the corners of the room. My mother made me a khaki-colored bedspread to which she added a red welt, to echo the tape around my room. I placed the bed sideways in the middle of the room against one wall. The space had one lamp on the floor, no table, no desk. I put everything extra in the closet. Eventually, practical matters intruded and I had to compromise and get a table, a chair, a desk, and a table lamp, but I always felt that the original design was better. When I was in my early teens, my parents had two more children, Chelo and Ins Mara. I became their on-and-off nanny, with sufficient authority to make them finish their Cheerios before getting up from the table. I was also the one who had to mediate when there were conflicts. I love those memories! I grew up with a sense of responsibility, and needless to say spatial awareness, that was nourished all the way to college. We spent every weekend in our one-bedroom apartment on Luquillo Beach, which brought the family closer. I designed the apartment with my mother to suit our needs. It was easy living! Of course, my siblings and I were always outside.

Once I graduated from high school I applied to the School of Architecture at the University of Puerto Rico, but my application was rejected. I never knew why. I tried again. The second time I was invited to take a test, which I passed. I thought I had reached Heaven. Those were magical years when I was introduced to design, art, music, photography, dance, Italian, and so on. I had discovered a world unbeknownst to me in my growing years. I was in my element! I saw Martha Graham perform. Traveled the island to study building types with Jorge Rigau, a young architect who later became the first president of the local AIA chapter and a prominent architecture book author. I made ceramic sculptures with Jaime Suarez, the best ceramicist in the island, who later became a world-known artist in the field. It was exhilarating. As a graduation present from my parents I traveled to Europe for the entire summer of 1980. This was my first time away from home alone and it was amazing. Everything that I had studied in school and read about was right there in front of my eyes. Caravaggios masterpiece at the Uffizi Palace, Berninis colonnade in Rome, Venice, the Pompidou Center in Paris. My eyes were opened to what had only been a fantasy before.

When I returned to PR to continue my studies, I decided that following my masters degree studies I was going to move away from home. I settled in New York City where I completed my second masters degree, this time in urban design, at Columbia University. New York City replaced Europe as my main inspiration. Stanton Eckstut, who designed the magnificently acclaimed master plan for Battery Park City, made me passionate about urban design. I graduated and stayed in NYC working with an architect who needed help. He was from the Aldrich family and inherited clients from his family firm, Delano and Aldrich. However, while supervising a project in Chelsea for Dina Merrills son, I met a cabinetmaker who at the time was working with John Saladino, who told me that they were looking for a designer. I dont know what prompted me to pay the office a visit the next day with my rsum and give it to him, but I did. Consequently, I was called for an interview and hired immediately. That is when my love affair with interior design started. I found that my diverse background gave me an advantage in getting into this field. I remained with this firm for nine years.

By 1992 I started my own practice and I designed my first piece of architecture, a small house in Amagansett. The house was a small 1,200-square-foot open space with bleached pine floors and seafoam greenupholstered furniture. I designed the house with my former partner Rene Fuentes-Chao in mind. He grew up in Cuba, so he understood the need for a house in which you could go outside from every room. The bed, enclosed in mosquito netting, was perched on a built-in platform that brought the mattress up to the sill of the bay window. The double outdoor shower had a full-length mirror and it was under a fabulous tree. It was magical! The house made the cover of Elle Dcor that summer, and from then on, more projects received publicity all over the world. Both apartments that I have shared with my partner of eight years, Steven Wine, have been published in such magazines as New York , French AD, German Madame, and others in